


A Spark Flies

by Dream_Traveler_Kirvee



Series: Demon Story Excerpts and Side Stories [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Animal Ears, Animal Traits, Child Abuse, Gen, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, POV First Person, Slavery, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 06:44:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18615268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Traveler_Kirvee/pseuds/Dream_Traveler_Kirvee
Summary: The materials are gathered, so now....it's time to create it.(Part 2 connected to "When My Name was Rosalind", this time in Zeev's POV.)





	A Spark Flies

**Author's Note:**

> Here's that 2nd part~! This was written to be a companion of sorts to Roz's side story, so it's Zeev's POV and only covers the later parts of Roz's story that got glossed over originally.
> 
> Since it's only the later parts, there's no heavy CSA warning on this one since none of that is shown (mainly implied with Roz's presence if you read the previous part). It IS mentioned once though but I'm not entirely sure if I should tag for that or not....please let me know if I should.

“ **FUCK THIS!** ” I yell as loudly as possible before kicking one of the stone walls in my cell.

The pain shooting through my foot immediately afterwards hurt like hell, but still felt satisfying to do, so I can’t really complain about it. I’ve been down here for what feels like the better part of the day and each passing hour only served to piss me off more and more.

Why am I here, in a dingy little cell, in a cold ass dungeon? Guess it’s someone’s idea of a bad joke. The asshole who bought us wants me to “learn my place” and “obey quietly”, well, he picked the wrong guy for that. He’ll get my obedience over my dead body. Fuck him and fuck this place!

What were they expecting, really? I was minding my own business. I’d just—I’d only just buried her, and then these two humans showed up out of nowhere one day acting all concerned with smiles and fake promises. I knew in my gut I should’ve run or told them to fuck off and then run, but I guess targeting people at their weakest is how they operate. They picked me up and knocked me out and the next thing I knew I was in a cage with dozens of other people like me. Of course I was pissed off! Everyone else being quiet about their suffering only made me angrier. That’s the last time I’ll ignore my gut. Ignoring my gut is why Aria is gone, and ignoring my gut is why I’m here, in this stupid cell, in this stupid mansion.

My toes are still throbbing from my earlier kick, but anger is still burning inside. Growling, grinding my teeth, and clenching my fists is only doing so much to help right now. In a flash of insight, I start to pull my fist back to punch the wall instead, but the sound of the dungeon door’s lock moving draws my attention away. Oh good, Master Asshole is here to piss me off some more. Or let me out. Probably both.

The cell I’m in isn’t far from the stairs, but no matter how much I press my face into the bars of the cell door, I can’t actually see around the corner. If Master Asshole has come to collect me, he’s sure taking his dear sweet time about it. I push my ears forward in an effort to try and hear better, since I haven’t heard much sound since the door opened. Finally, I hear it creak closed again, and noise that…sounded like a girl? The shuffling footsteps that followed were definitely too dull and unsure to belong to that demon, so who was it?

It’s night now, but the moon outside is full and high enough that it’s shining through the high window in my cell and the ones nearby. It isn’t much light, but it’s better than total darkness. When my half-demon features grew in a few years ago, one of the changes was to my night vision. Before, I was as blind in the dark as any normal human. Now, I can see pretty well at night. It’s not the greatest or anything—if it’s completely dark, I’m only barely less blind than I was as a human, but it still counts as an improvement. The light coming into the dungeon is gray instead of pitch black, and combined with my slight night vision I can make out solid shapes and some features and body movement, but not much else. Not that I need to see anything else.

Whoever’s paying me a visit finally makes it to the bottom of the stairs and rounds the corner facing my cell. I instantly recognize her as the pretty girl from that shit show of an exchange we’d been thrown into. She seems anxious tonight, clutching something in her arms and constantly looking over her shoulder at the staircase and the door at the top. From this distance, I can only make out her silhouette, but I can tell her ears are constantly moving whenever she turns her head, like she’s worried about hearing something. She wasn’t like this at the exchange or when we arrived here. If anything, she’s always cold and indifferent. I narrow my eyes as I observe her from my cell. She can’t see me as well as I can see her, apparently.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

She jumps at that, and I can’t help but feel smugly amused. She knows where I am now, though, so she finally gets over whatever’s keeping her near the door and comes closer to my cell.

“Quiet!” She whispers pretty harshly while looking back towards the staircase, even though I hadn’t yelled it or anything. I raise an eyebrow at this. She rearranges her arms a bit to grab one of the things she brought before holding it out to me, “I brought you food.”

I cross my arms at that. She, Ms. Obedient, breaking the rules all of a sudden? Like I was going to believe _that_!

“Not hungry,” I state, turning so my back’s to her.

Master Asshole had thrown me in here around noon. I hadn’t eaten anything since that meager meal they pass off as breakfast around here. It was long past dinner now, but if he thinks denying me food will break me he needs to try harder. I’ve had most of my life to get used to rationing and going days without food. If he wants to play this game I can play it longer.

“It’s been a whole day!”

“So?” I look over my shoulder at her. What I can make out of her face this close to the moonlight suggests she’s shocked. Has she never had to go a day without eating?

“You need to eat something.”

“Says who?” I turn back around to face her, my arms still firmly crossed, “He sent you down here, didn’t he? Trying to prolong my time in here?”

“Wha—I—No! No one sent me here!” Her voice rises as she says it, and immediately she flinches and glances back toward the stairs.

I scoff,

“Sure you weren’t.”

“I came here by myself!” She’s glaring at me. I glare back. This only seems to make her straighten up a bit and her wings shift as if they’re bristling. Seems there is some emotion under Ms. Obedient’s icy exterior after all! “Do you want my help or not?”

“What I want is for you to fuck off, and tell him that too.” Not that she would, based on what I’d seen.

She keeps standing there, though, glaring at me. The hell is she thinking? I keep up my end of the glaring contest too.

“Fine.” Whatever display of emotion she’d been showing off seemed to leave her now and it was back to cold indifference.

She doesn’t immediately leave, though. She puts the food she’d been cradling in her arms down on the floor near the cell door, close enough that I can reach it if I wanted to. Now that I can see them better it was a small bundle of fruits and hand food she’d probably swiped from Master Asshole’s pantry. She leaves without another word. Good riddance.

As soon as I hear the dungeon door creak closed again my stomach betrays me.

“ _Shut up!_ ” I mumble under my breath to myself.

Any anger that had been leftover from being thrown in here left with Ms. Obedient, so I let myself slide down the wall to sit on the ground. My head and body suddenly feel heavy with exhaustion, so I close my eyes. My stomach reminds me again that it’s empty. Guess it has been a while since I last ate…

What would happen if Master Asshole came in tomorrow and found the food she’d left behind? It’d be her own damn fault for coming here unwanted in the first place! But from what I can tell from the short time we’ve been here, Master Asshole would figure out some way to blame it on me too. I’ll play all the games he wants to play, but I don’t want to stay in this cramped place longer than I have to. Damn it! Damn her!

As much as I want to just leave the food alone to rot and be found later, it’s in both of our best interests to make the food disappear. So, begrudgingly, I crawl over to the door and start eating all I can reach. Technically, this counts as a victory over Master Asshole, since I won’t starve now like he wants me to. If I think of it like that, I guess it’s not so bad.

He comes to get me out a few hours later when the sun starts to rise, condescending as usual and pissing me off all over again. Ms. Obedient’s random act of disobedience went unnoticed. I manage to stay out of the dungeon for a day or two, until I threw a chunk of wood at him and got thrown back into it. And the game starts again.

She visits me that night too, with another armful of food. This time I ignore her, but she still doesn’t take no for an answer! Girl’s persistent, I’ll give her that. She left the food near the cell door again, so I _guess_ I’ll eat it this time too. I don’t understand why she’s doing this at all. Why the sudden change of heart? Was Master Asshole that desperate?

He comes and gets me again the next day and a few days later I told him off with a few choice words and he didn’t like that. Hello stone walls, I bet you missed me.

Predictably, Ms. Obedient sneaks down here again. I start to ignore her again—maybe this time it’ll stick that I don’t want or need any help—but the questions from before kept nagging at me like annoying flies in my head. I can hear her sigh behind me and set the food down again. I sigh too, frustrated, and turn around as she starts to leave.

“Hey,” She pauses to look back at me, not having yet left my field of view from this tiny ass cell. She seems surprised I actually talked—I’m surprised I’m actually talking, “Why the hell you doing this?”

Assuming she’s not just being the same old Ms. Obedient and following some order from Master Asshole to try and break me in a more fucked up way. Her mouth’s opening like she’s going to answer but then she stops and draws in on herself—holding one of her arms close to her and her wings wrapping more around her shoulders, like a shield.

“I… I don’t know.”

“You don’t know…?” I echo, dumbfounded. I cross my arms as I regard her. There’s no way that’s the real answer. “Bullshit.”

She seems to bristle at this, I can tell even in the dim light and my limited vision that her cheeks are puffing up. Cute.

“Is not!” She’s trying so hard not to raise her voice, but it still comes out somewhere between a whisper and an actual shout. She doesn’t cringe about it this time, though.

“So, you’re telling me that after all this time of loyal obedience, you’re suddenly feeling rebellious and you have no idea why? Do you honestly expect me to believe that? I _saw_ you at that shit show, you know. You’d jump if they told you to, and you let them do whatever they wanted to you. And you’ve been nothing but cold and distant ever since, and now you expect me to believe this? That kinda change doesn’t happen overnight!”

I probably could’ve been a little less harsh, but honestly? This kind of shit pisses me off. If you’re going to do something, do it with conviction. Do it with purpose! If you don’t have a purpose, then why the fuck are you doing it in the first place? I bite my lip in a mild attempt to hold back anything _else_ I want to rip into her about. She still seems fired up and not upset.

“I don’t _expect_ you to believe anything!” Okay maybe she’s a little bit upset. Her hands have balled up into fists and she’s stepped closer to the cell door, her wings unfurled from her shoulders that she doesn’t seem to notice. “I didn’t want to be there anymore than you did! I don’t obey because I want to, but because I need to! How have you not learned that by now? Do you have any idea how close you are to dying every time you make him angry? He could kill you immediately if he wanted to, but he’s toying with you instead! Don’t you get that?!”

I laugh, “So what? What’s he gonna do? He’s just an overpowered human.”

“That’s not what a demon is! Do you not know what they’re capable of?!” I don’t know why she sounds so disbelieving of that.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know? All we ever grew up around were humans!” I glare at her.

“Oh, I see, so that’s why you’re so stupid,” she says with her hands on her hips now. I feel the corner of my eye twitch.

“Wanna say that again?” I growl.

We have a glaring contest between the two of us for what feels like a few minutes before she finally breathes a deep sigh and closes her eyes. I turn my glare to the stone floor next to me.

“Look,” she finally speaks up again and I look back up at her, “I just think that it’s in our best interests to work together, at least for now.”

“Work together on…?”

She frowns and that same look of uncertainty returns to her face.

“Escape, I guess? Ideally. I mean, we’ll probably die either way, but…” another sigh, “If we stay here we’re all going to die here.”

I get it, self-preservation. I can respect that. Guess Ms. Obedient has a spine after all. Before I can say or ask anything else, though, she suddenly goes rigid and I can see her ears moving. Guess she heard something upstairs.

“I have to go,” is all she says before twirling on her toe and awkwardly running back to the stairs.

It was only for a second, but in the moment when she turned her wings had been positioned in such a way that I thought I saw holes and weird marks in them. I narrow my eyes at her retreating back, but she’s already too far away for me to see clearly and then she disappears around the corner and I’m alone in the dungeon again. That girl seriously pisses me off, but now I can’t help but be curious about her.

I almost forgot about the food she left for me. I eat it quickly and, like last time, Master Asshole comes and retrieves me and doesn’t seem to suspect anything. This guy must love keeping everyone separated, because ever since we first arrived here I almost never see either of the girls and only occasionally see the other boys—usually when he assigns a task that’s meant for more than one person. The few nights I actually saw the “room” we slept in he’d lock the door to keep us from wandering, I guess. I assume he does the same to the girl’s room. Basically, the only times I can ever see Ms. Obedient are when he throws me in the dungeon, which isn’t hard to stay out of for me. A few days later I piss him off again and you can guess where I am now, right?

I hadn’t exactly been nice to her the previous time…would she even come again? But come she did, once more with food. This time I actually nibble on some of it before she leaves. If she takes any notice to it, she doesn’t make it obvious. She does, however, kneel down next to the cell door when I don’t feel like standing up this time. How thoughtful.

If the last few times were anything to go on, she seems to like leading these conversations of ours, so I let her. I can see her a little better tonight and her lips are pouting a bit, like she’s thinking too much about something. Guess I’ll prompt her.

“If you wanna say something, say it.”

I see her jolt slightly from hearing me talk, but looks like that got the ball rolling.

“Before,” she begins, “you mentioned a we when you said you only lived around humans. Who was we?”

Had I? It’d been a few days…oh, I guess I had.

“Me and my little sister,” I answer, shrugging my shoulders as I eat one of the berries she’d brought down for me.

Her eyes widen and she leans forward some, “You have a sister?!”

“Had. And yeah. Doesn’t everyone?”

“Oh…” She seems to deflate a little, but shakes her head, “All the half-demons I’ve ever known have been only children.”

“I had parents too, but they fucked off years ago. Dunno where they are, and I don’t care to know.” I have a long list of shit I’d do to them if I ever see them again, though chances of that happening are slim to none.

“I never knew mine…most of us don’t.”

I’m honestly not sure what to say to that. Comfort’s meaningless when it’s about the past you can’t change.

“Sucks. Probably for the best, though. Sounds like all of our parents ran away regardless, so it’s not like our positions would be any different.” Except maybe Aria would still be here.

“Hm, I guess you have a point,” a pause, “What happened to your sister?”

“Aria.”

“Aria,” she echoes, “was she captured too?”

“No, she’s,” fuck my breath hitched! I breathe in for a moment before letting it back out again. At some point my hands had balled into tight fists, “she’s dead.” And saying it out loud still feels like my chest is hollow, just like when it finally sank in after I buried her.

“Sorry,” she says it softly, but even I could still hear it. I wave away the concern with a noncommittal grunt.

Her expression reads something like sympathy and I can’t help but frown at it. I don’t need any damn sympathy. Sympathy won’t bring her back. Ms. Obedient looks like she wants to ask me more, but thankfully she doesn’t. Now that I think about it…what was this girl’s name? Given her recent acts of disobedience, calling her Ms. Obedient isn’t fitting anymore.

“Hey,” she looks up from where she’d averted her eyes to the ground in front of her, “what’s your name?”

Her brow furrows.

“Didn’t you hear it at the Exchange?”

“Wasn’t listening.”

She sighs,

“Should’ve figured that.”

I raise an eyebrow at her and she seems to hesitate a moment.

“Rosalind,” she pauses, but I can tell she has more to say, “One of my first masters named me that when I was 5. He’d always call me things like his beautiful rose or little rosebud, so this was an easier way for him to call me something, I guess. It’s stuck around all this time, so…that’s my name.”

Hearing that just about makes me puke. Only just. When I was that age we’d been abandoned. Comparing that with the way she’d been paraded around at that shit show makes me weirdly glad that Aria hadn’t been subjected to that and wouldn’t be. The deadpan way Rosalind talked about it was disturbing, and I can’t help but sneer at it. I want to point out how disgusting that kind of name origin sounds, but Rosalind beats me to it,

“I realize now it doesn’t sound all that great, but…” she shrugs, and her wings move a bit with the motion, “It’s all I’ve ever had.”

What the fuck else can I say to that, really? So for once I just keep my mouth shut, though I hum to acknowledge her. Time’s up anyway, and she leaves again. We’d eaten the food while we were talking, so I didn’t have to worry about that tonight.

She kept coming to see me every time I was in the dungeon. Guess Master Asshole isn’t as bright as he likes to act like he is. Most people would’ve been put off by now by how stand-offish I can get, but even on nights when Rosalind and I would argue over some stupid shit she’d still come back the next time. Even with her little plan, I don’t know why she bothers visiting me so much. Not that I’m complaining or anything. Staring at cold, gray walls gets boring after a while.

Rosalind. Just thinking her name makes my stomach churn. Not because of her, but because of the fact some sick bastard named her that. I don’t know why my shitty parents named Aria and me the way they did, but I could at least say with certainty the reasons weren’t anything as fucking disgusting as that. Even just saying her name feels wrong to me. Plus, it’s way too damn long. You know what? I’m calling her Roz now. It’s shorter, sounds better, and didn’t come from a sick child fucking bastard. Win-win for everyone.

The next time I see Roz the night outside is clear, so the full moon seems to shine brighter than it had most other nights. As a result, the dungeon is lit up a little better, and when she comes close enough to my cell I can finally see her wings better than I could before. Specifically, I finally see what I thought I saw some time before—holes and scars in the skin between the thicker frame of her wings.

“The hell happened there?”

“Happened where?”

I point to her wings and she follows with her eyes before she seems to realize what I’m asking about.

“Oh…nothing, really.”

“’Nothing’, says the girl with holes in her wings.”

“It’s a precaution,” her words suggest she’s justifying it, but the way she said it sounds more like it was a rehearsed excuse.

“For?”

“So I can’t use them. For escape or as weapons.”

Fuck, she has wings but she can’t even fly? Something about that’s extremely fucked up.

She’d set the food down already, but she seems nervous now that I pointed out her wings, holding her arm close to her again and having them wrapped around herself.

“Don’t they hurt?”

She tilts her head, her lips a smooth line, which usually means she’s thinking about it.

“A little bit, I guess,” she finally answers, shrugging with both shoulders and wings.

“They—my masters—have done it for so long I guess I don’t really notice it anymore. Not as much.”

What the fuck! Hearing that just makes my blood boil and I must’ve been growling unintentionally because she jolts as if surprised and then looks away towards the other cells.

“I know it’s…that they’re ugly like this, but…it is what it is, I guess,” she doesn’t sound sure at all and her voice got quieter the more she said.

How fucking dare those bastards. Hearing her justify it like that didn’t help my boiling anger at all.

That meeting wasn’t as eventful as our previous ones. Talk turned to our half-demon features.

“You could probably fly with those, once they heal up and you’ve practiced. I can run faster than I used to, but it took me a few times to figure out how it works.”

“I can’t…”

“When we escape you can.”

“ _If_ we escape!”

I groan a sigh and cover my face with one of my palms.

“You need to stop being so damn pessimistic!”

“Well, _you_ need to start thinking realistically!”

“ _I’m_ not the one with the ‘unrealistic’ plan to escape.”

I got her there. Her cheeks puff up in that cute way again. I know it sounds like we’re arguing, but I’m actually just teasing her. She’s pretty fun to tease, once she’s not so uptight.

I hadn’t realized how much time had passed already, so only half the food she brought ends up being eaten. I’m full already, so she starts to pick up what was left over. We haven’t been caught yet, but not leaving evidence is still recommended, even if I do question how smart Master Asshole really is.

“Thanks for the food, Roz,” I say it without thinking and only realize after I’d said it. Shit. I’ve been calling her Roz in my head this whole time, but I haven’t actually addressed her by it.

She’d been on her way to the stairs when I said it, but now she’s turned to face me again.

“What?”

Oh good, maybe she hadn’t heard my slip-up.

“Thanks for the food,” I say instead. Much better.

“No, what did you just call me?”

Fuck.

“Oh…” Damnit. I hadn’t meant for her to hear that nickname. What to do now…guess there’s no point in lying about it. She’d probably pick up on it anyway, damn bat hearing and all, “Your name’s just…kind of long and hard to remember,” and it feels disgusting on my tongue, “so…I’m just going to call you Roz from now on.”

Someone who isn’t me would probably be considerate about it, but I’m not that person. If she doesn’t like it, too bad. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.

I say that, but I still watch her silhouette a little anxiously for a response. Damn her.

“Roz.” She echoes.

I can’t see any of her features from this far away, the moon having since left the view of the window and my night vision being limited as it is. She doesn’t…sound angry, though? She doesn’t say anything more for a few moments. I want to almost scream, but I refrain, watching her still silhouette instead.

“Yes, call me Roz.”

And just like that she’s gone again and I realize that my lungs are burning from not breathing, so I fix that. Damnit! Damn her! But I can’t and am not really mad at her for anything. If anything, I’m mad at myself for giving him the weakness he’s been waiting for all this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> This was written over a year ago in Creative Writing around the same time I wrote Roz's side story (among many others). Together these are meant to give an idea of how the rebel group in the main novel started. I'd intended to end it here, but my classmates at the time were clamoring for a part 3. I never got around to writing that though, but I still might....someday.....
> 
> Zeev is really fun to write, I love him. I hope you enjoyed his voice.
> 
> Also, if AO3 allowed subtitles this one's would be "Zeev Catches Feelings".


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